Question

If you are/were a teacher, or based on your experiences as a student, do you think its strange for a teacher to take off points on an essay for the word "very?" I see how it's overused, but it helps to differentiate the degree of something.

Answer 1

If the instuctions were to avoid the use of "very," then it makes sense to take off points for using this word.

Answer 2

If you use it once in a paper, it's not a big deal, but if you use it all over the place, I would do the same thing! Try writing without using "very" at all. If you don't think the word you want to modify with "very" is strong enough, find a better word.

Answer 3

My first essay was very bad also. I overused very very much. I didn't take the teacher's critisms very kindly, and was very irritated that she gave me a very poor grade. After all, I was very tired when I wrote it, and very unhappy with my grade when she took off very much, as I think she should have taken off very little. And besides, it is my very own business what words I overuse.

Now here is a question for you...
Is your teacher giving you a message? Tell her thanks.

Answer 4

Well-stated, Bobpursley! :-)